Taxmen want hassle-free scheme for black money

No scrutiny likely for returns with 30% more income.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has received a slew of suggestions from its zonal offices to introduce schemes that encourage people to pay taxes on undisclosed income without any questions being asked.

The Mumbai and the northern zones of the income tax department have proposed that the tax returns of assessees who declare an additional 30 per cent income over the preceding year be excluded from scrutiny.

They have, however, suggested that suitable checks and balances be introduced to prevent unscrupulous taxpayers from misusing the scheme.

Similarly, the west zone has proposed that cases of assessees with twice the income compared with the last returns should not scrutinised.

The suggestions were circulated to chief income tax commissioners last week during the annual conference organised by the CBDT.

It has been proposed that people should be encouraged to disclose income under the head "income from other sources" and disclosure of the source of income may not be insisted upon by the department.

The southern zone suggested a scheme for assessees who have booked significant profits through stock market transactions during the last few years but have not disclosed their income adequately.

The northern zone also proposed that the assessment period for cases taken up for scrutiny should be changed to December 31 instead of March 31, to have recoveries included within that financial year.

Revenue department officials said the Supreme Court had barred the government from introducing amnesty schemes and the suggestions had been made during zonal conferences held across the country over the past few months.

The United Progressive Alliance government's Common Minimum Programme had identified unearthing of black money as an important area of action and the Prime Minister's Office had also asked the revenue department to focus on it along with computerisation of taxpayer services.